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Telling it like it isn’t

In an apparent attempt to prostrate itself before its ultra-conservative audience, Channel 5 allowed tonight a Chandler vice-mayor, a virtual nobody, to attack a President Obama speech in Arizona before it is given. Obama is scheduled to appear on Wednesday afternoon at the large Intel plant in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix.

Presumably, neither the vice-mayor, Jeff Weninger, nor any other Arizonan, knows for sure what Obama will say. But Weninger apparently suspects Obama, a Democrat, will take credit for Intel’s growth. The real credit, says the disingenuous Weninger, goes to conservative legislators and city officials in Arizona.

The comments proved a blatant and feeble attempt to blunt Obama from gaining momentum in what the President regards as a swing-state in his re-election bid in November.

That Channel 5 allowed this non-story to air on its 10 o’clock news under its “Telling It Like It Is” segment is yet another sad example of how amateurish and naive local TV news has become in Phoenix. The story was propaganda, not news.